Blamer-in-Chief

Nickname for president Barack Obama that came about later in his first term, when he shifted away from the inspirational rhetoric of his first presidential campaign and instead started blaming all sorts of other people or groups for his administration's failures and the country's problems when questioned, instead of manning up and taking responsibility like a real leader would. Initially, the blame for current failures was directed toward former administrations (Bush). The blame game reached new heights in Obama's second term when, during the partial government shutdown of late 2013, the president said repeatedly that he would not negotiate with other elected officials, and continued to place all of the blame and responsibility for the shutdown on others (notably, Republicans in congress) even resorting to highly inflammatory rhetoric. The Obama administration subsequently made many eye-raising decisions about what to keep up open versus what to close from the general public during the shutdown; these decisions appeared to be made to make the American people "feel the pain" of the shutdown who would have otherwise not noticed, and drum up anger and blame toward congress.